Detroit Lions' Taylor Decker emphasizes technique in off-season

Detroit Lions left tackle Taylor Decker has a novel idea about off-season training: Football players get better by practicing football.

"In my humble opinion, which I’m only in my second year in this league, I don’t feel like people always work enough on skill acquisition,” Decker said today. “Everybody lifts weights, everybody runs. But not everybody’s doing drills in the off-season constantly.

“And at the end of the day, you’re not a weightlifter, you’re not a sprinter. You’re a football player. So I think that was huge for me to be able to every single day work on drills and work on things that are applicable to be on the field.”

Before the Lions returned for off-season workouts in Allen Park, Decker trained with former offensive lineman LeCharles Bentley at his O-line performance academy in Chandler, Ariz. Among the skills he honed were his footwork and general attention to detail, two technical parts of his game that he hopes become automatic this season.

“You have to be able to train yourself to where you get in the game, bullets are flying, you’re not thinking about what you’re doing,” Decker said. “You’re reacting and what you’re reacting (with) is proper techniques, proper ways to react.”

Decker had a strong first season. He was named to the all-rookie team by the Pro Football Writers of America. Decker wants to improve on that, and he thinks he might be able to cull some valuable insight from new teammates T.J. Lang and Rick Wagner.

“It’s really cool to see this organization is putting an emphasis on the offensive line,” he said. “They drafted three of us the other year with me, Graham (Glasgow) and Joe (Dahl). They’re bringing in obviously documented very good players. That’s cool to see.

“I think it’s going to help to give a different perspective on things, guys that have played in different systems, maybe they can help me with a little thing here and there. And a bunch of little things here and there make you a much better player.”